10-Story Detective Magazine Cover — page 68: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Groomed for the Grave By Robert S. Fenton q in the morning, Tony Sava and Benny Scott were counting the take for the Green Table on West Fifty-second. They were in their small ornate office up- stairs. A very pretty entertainer named Rhea Anselmo sat in a chair, smoking a cigarette in a holder. Tony looked at the | T WAS two o’clock Tony Sava’s pariner iried so hard to be well-dressed, that Tony arranged to have his shreud tailor-made, too. dark-haired songbird with fever in his | eyes , but she was looking at Scott. “Tt was a good night,” Benny said. “A very good night. Now if we didn’t have to give out with percentages—” The girl crushed a cigarette out, got up, and picked up her summer furs. “Smart guys don’t cut in every monkey who thinks he’s big, Benny. I’m tired. I’m going to get some shut-eye.” “Yeah, baby,” Benny said. He got up, put an arm around her, and saw her to the door. “I'll call you about noon.” Tony filed a thumbnail, looked at the gir], then the stacks of bills on the desk. He added them together. The sum total was alluring. Benny sat down and savagely bit the end off a cigar. He looked at his wrist watch, then at Pony. Ten minutes later there was a soft knocking on the door. It was pushed open and a man came in, He wore a grey plaid double-breasted that was never handed down from a rack, a light purplish-grey soft hat and pastel tie. Mike Kreger was the fashion plate of the high class shady set. The camel’s hair topcoat he wore must have set him back nearly two C’s. * “Evening, boys,’ Kreger said. Benny feasted his eyes on Kreger’s sar- torial excellence and felt a little shabby, — although his own suit had set him back a hundred and fifty, Benny had graduated Np from the thirty-two buck suits class only a few months ago, He had to have some- one to go by. The hat hanging on the tree in the corner of the office was a lot like Mike’s. “A nice coat, Mike,” Benny said. “I always admired it. If anything ~ ever happens to you—” “Imported,” Mike said and took a com- fortable chair. “Can’t get ’em no more, not like this one. Okay, let’s do business. Seven hundred fifty. Benny, for the week,” He looked at Tony. “Look, you’ve kicked it up two hundred an’ fifty, Mike,’’ Benny protested. “You want to ruin us?” Tony bit out. “Listen, boys,” Kreger said. “Don’t pay if you feel.that way. But 1 own half the guys in your band, and that Anselmo canary might have an accident going home some night. She packs ’em in. Suit yourself,” Benny looked at Tony; Tony set his teeth tightly together and shrugged. “Pay him,” Tony said, after a short op- pressive silence. Benny stripped his take of the seven and and a half C’s and gave it to Kreger. He walked out with the big shot. When Seott came back in, Tony said, “What could we do?” “I say anythin’?” Sava snapped and dropped into the chair the girl had been using, He eaught the lingering fragrance of the stuff she used. It cost about eighty bucks an ounce. “Tm seeing Kreger tomorrow night,” Benny said. “I’ll talk it over with him, and see if he won’t ease up on us a little. Hell, the guy gets a cut in, about a hun- dred joints, Tony.” “He’s a big man,” Tony said. “I’m go- ing home.” He turned in the doorway. “You’re just as tall and wide, Benny, but Kreger must be big up here.” He tapped his skull and closed the door behind him. He went over to his hotel and thought it all over. He wanted Rhea, he wanted 'S | “S “€omicboo